LIFT

Now that the turf has settled and we are well into championship seasons in racing across the globe, it is nice to remember some of the good feelings about WOODBINE MILE day.

The betting was booming and that has to be the big news taken away from the day as far as Ontario hors eracing is concerned.

The all-sources handle on the Ricoh Woodbine Mile card was a record $6,698,099, shattering the former mark of $6,064,189 set in 2011.

The attraction of a big horse means a lot to any race and Ontario needs that boost. Hey, betting has been good this year, field size has been solid.Yesterday’s stakes race field size was small, the card of racing, compared to most other big days, less-than-stellar, but the people bet with both hands. I know I did.

People cheered when Dan came to the wire in front under a hand ride. He indeed is a freak.

The trainer, Charles Lopresti, is a nice guy, media friendly and easy to cheer for. Owner Morton Fink was getting his picture taken with the locals in an after-Mile gathering at the track.

And WISE DAN. What can you say about a horse who has only lost once on grass..has not lost in 9 races and carried weight, battled the elements?There are stil a few detractors, but not many. He was my Horse of the Year last year and he may be my HOY this year.

I got to talk to STEVE HASKIN at the Blood-Horse before Dan ran, he mentioned Dan in the same breath as some of the great, great greats!

“I wouldn’t call him great on a level with geldings Forego, Kelso, and John Henry, because he’s been a specialist in his peak years. But for what he is now, which is a miler on the grass, he is great.”

(that’s what my story in the Toronto Star was supposed to say!)

GET YOUR GAME ON, DUDE

A thin line now separates the top two vote getters in the week 29 edition of the NTRA National Thoroughbred Poll. Game On Dude and Wise Dan are basically a nose apart in the latest tabulation.

Wear your velvet and your bell bottoms, let’s party at an informal gathering for LongRun Friday Sept. 20 at Woodbine.

Tickets are just $150 and you get tons of stuff including an awesome meal for that price – just look at the sponsors and then at the list of some of the auction items!! Wow, it’s gonna be a great night.

You better be there! SHAME ON YOU if you are not!

AUCTION ITEMS include..

Polo weekend at Polo Parc Farms (I will send you details) as well as a $500 travel voucher.

Tickets to the Arc de Triomphe weekend in members’ enclosure as well as a $1,000 travel voucher.

We don’t know her name, but this little girl has a stuffed horse she calls FORTE DEI MARMI and she was invited into the winner’s circle by Roger Attfield and his girlfriend Tina Konyot for a thrilling moment! Dave Landry photo

STRRRRRRRRETCHHHH – HIS RACE TO WIN is really blooming now..a son of Stormy Atlantic, a Sam-Son colt, no it’s not a Bird! It’s another good 3yo in Canada. He won the Ontario Derby (grade 3). Dave Landry photo

LUIS CONTRERAS celebrates aboard MINAKSHI (Fr), who led a Michael Matz-trained exactor in the Canadian Stakes – the winner is not Breeders’ Cup eligible so expect to see her back for the EP Taylor Stakes. Dave Landry photo

“He’s very muscular,correct, and looked like he’dbe an early 2-year-old,@Burnett assessed. “He vetted absolutely clean, and hisscope was A+. Everything about him was attractive,and he was very classy.”Burnett purchased dam Swanky Bubbles as a yearlingfor about $68,000 at the 2003 FTCSEP sale. Shedidn=t earn black-type for him, but was a hard-knockingcheck-getter who banked nearly $75,000. Her true worth, though, has come inthe breeding shed.Burnett sold her first foal, Bubbles to the Top, forabout $70,000 at the 2009 ONTSEP sale, and she’sgone on to place in three stakes and earn over$275,000. Swanky Bubbles=s second foal sadly died ina training accident; this colt was her third. The marehas an Old Forester filly on the ground and is back infoal to Zensational. “And she’ll go back to StormyAtlantic next year,” said Burnett

On Sunday, Anderson Farms sold a session topping Ontario bred by Medaglia d’Oro:

Anderson Farms purchased Loving Vindication for$180,000 out of the 2011 Keeneland January sale.Dave Anderson knew he was leading a popular commodity up to the sales ring. “We ran out of cards Saturday and we still have horses to sell in Book 3, so we knew we had a lot of people looking at him,”Anderson commented yesterday. Of Loving Vindication, he added, AShe looked like shewas a young mare who could be a long-terminvestment.”

Meanwhile, the full brother to QUEEN’S PLATE winner MIDNIGHT ARIA was listed as NOT SOLDfor just $70,000 at Keeneland…

Did I say anything about people who were out of town? or sick in bed or could afford it…it is implied i just meant if you were able..you must not be very busy working to have time to write such a ridiculous, absurd sentence..David1967

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